Various proposals have been made for a walking assistance device that is adapted to mount an actuator to the hip joint or knee joint of a person having a walking impediment due to injury, disease or weakened muscle resulting from aging, so that the power from the actuator can be used to assist the movement of the lower limb.
Conventionally, it was common in such a walking assistance device to fixedly mount the actuator to the lower limb via a support member fastened on the thigh or lower leg portion by tightening a belt or the like.
The upright posture of the spine during walking is maintained by the balance of back muscle and abdominal muscle. The weakening of muscles of a person having walking impediment applies not only to the muscles of lower limb but also to the back and abdominal muscles. Particularly, the weakening of the abdominal muscle can make it quite difficult to maintain the upright posture during walking. However, the prior art devices, such as those disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 58-163364 (FIGS. 1-4) or Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 7-163607 (FIG. 1), are only capable of securely mounting the actuator near the joint, and are provided with virtually no function to assist the maintenance of the upright posture.